Featured Speaker

Visual Works of Blade & Soul

Hyung-tae Kim is a Korean artist who is well known for his outstanding contributions to the videogame industry. He gained his reputation for art creation in games such as the Magna Carta series and the later installments of the War of Genesis series (War of Genesis: Tempest, War of Genesis III, and War of Genesis III: Part 2). He began his videogame career working in the field of background music, then shifted to art and design, and since then, he has branched out into the comic book industry, serving as a guest cover artist and contributing to the Udon street fighter series. He is currently an art director at NCsoft, where he is working on a multiplayer online role-playing game called Blade & Soul, an Asian martial arts fantasy influenced mainly by Korean culture.

In this presentation, Hyung-tae Kim shares his experience in production of the highly anticipated massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Blade & Soul and reveals some of the early stages, such as concept art or trailers, on the journey to give life to one of the most popular games today. Focusing on the creation of new characters in the game, he also discusses how art direction and game design influence the way the game is played, how it is marketed to a worldwide audience.